India’s domestic air passenger traffic jumped by 15.77% to 86.55 Lakhs during February 2017, Indigo at the top

Source: DGCA

Indian aviation industry is experiencing robust growth of air
passenger traffic domestically driven by improving connectivity. In the month
of February 2017, number of air passengers increased by 15.77% year on year to 86.55
Lakhs. While total number of passengers carried during 2016 were up by 20.51%
y-o-y to 182.34 Lakhs. The increased focus of government to expand regional connectivity
by starting operations at tier 2 cities is driving the growth for aviation
industry.

India’s largest Low Cost Airline (LCC), Indigo continues to
dominate with 39.5% market share. Indigo carried 34.19 Lakhs passengers during
February 2017. While Jet Airways (Jet +Jet Lite) 15.82 Lakhs passenger to
capture 18.3% share. State owned carrier Air India is at third place with
13.5% share carrying 11.71 Lakh air travelers. Top 5 airlines accounts for 93.0%
of total market share in Indian aviation sector.

In terms of Passenger Load Factor (PLF), another LCC SpiceJet
leads with 93.7% followed by GoAir (90.9%), Air Asia (88.1%), Indigo (87.7%) and
Jet Airways (96.5%). PLF has maintained the same level compared with previous
month as tourist season is approaching its end.

On Time Performance (OTP) is one of important factor for
passengers deciding about which airline to fly. Spicejet is the most punctual
with 81.1% OTP followed by Indigo (79.7%) and Vistara (72.6%). About 2/3rd
delays are Reactionary in nature during February 2017 while ATC and Airport
management caused 20% of flight delays.

Cancellation rates during February 2017 stood at 0.39% which
is reasonably low. All the major airlines fared well while Air Asia and Air Carnival
had zero cancellations.